CarComplaints.com Notes: Kia really changed the design of the Sorento in the 2011 model year. Instead of a truck-like body-on-frame more capable of offroad adventures, the newest Sorento is a unibody construction and is much more crossover than sport utility. The changes brought a whole slew of problems, including a frustrating problem where the door that won’t open. Is it too late to go back?
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
8 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
7 / 0
Average Mileage:
32,288 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving 60 mph the accelerator failed. The contact steered the vehicle to the side of the road as it slowed to a stop. Once the vehicle was restarted the accelerator responded as designed. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnosis and the throttle body was replaced. The contact mentioned that it was the second time the throttle body had to be replaced. The failure and current mileage was 24,000.
When acceleration from a stop or slow speed the engine will occasionally bog down or hesitate and almost die. Very dangerous when attempting to pull out in traffic esp onto a highway from a side street.
2011 Kia Sorento. Consumer states unintended acceleration the consumer stated as he was driving down his driveway, he began to slow down, as he approached the road. There was a slight shifting motion and the vehicle suddenly accelerated to the max of 8000 RPM's. he depressed the brake, but the vehicle continued to move, so he placed the transmission in neutral and turned off the engine. He then re-started the engine and everything seemed normal. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. However, they were unable to duplicate the incident.
Engine stalls while driving, last time was almost in accident 1/23/12 @40 mph, 3/06/12 @ 50 mph, 5/24/12 @35 mph, 9/4/12 @55 mph. Have dealership service records for first three incidents. New throttle body installed 3/06/1 in Florida at sunset Kia in venice. Per matt jarvis bald hill Kia in warwick ri, the replacement throttle body was defective (Kia got a bad lot of throttle bodies for a while.] replaced again 9/6/12. Dealership had knowledge of possible defective part before last stalling. I was driving at 55 mph on rt 24 in middletown ri in the passing lane when the car stalled, gas peddle unresponsive. I was almost rear ended and had to weave though traffic to get through the driving lane then on to the grass. It was a miracle that I made it to safety. Why did dealership not recall defective throttle bodies.
On 9/19/2012 at 12:17 pm I took a frantic call from my wife. She had just stopped to fill up with gas, got back on the interstate and set the cruise control at around 75 mph. Shortly afterwards the front end started shaking and the vehicle started to lose speed. She shut off the cruise and was looking for a place to pull over when the vehicle started to accelerate on its own. It was already going over 80 mph when she called. I told her to stand on the brakes-no effect. I told her to put her foot on the brake and to push and hold the start button for 10 seconds-nothing (that is the override to get the car started when the brake switch malfunctions-we had just had it replaced at the dealership 2 weeks prior). I told her to shift it into neutral-the shifter is locked in drive. I told her to shift to a lower gear-it won't move. After 4 minutes the car was going over 85 mph-I told her to hang up & call 911 as she could tell them where she was much better than I could. A few minutes later I received a call from the highway patrol-they had 2 cruisers on the interstate with her trying to clear traffic ahead of her. I asked if they could get a cruiser ahead of her and let her nose up behind it and then use the cruiser to stop her. Evidently they didn't like that idea or it is against policy because they never did try that. The dispatcher had to hang up to concentrate on the situation at hand. I now had the dispatcher's number so I could call her back. At one point I called back and suggested that she engage the cruise control and try to slow the car with it. My wife does not remember ever trying this. This went on for about 45 minutes at speeds up to 119 mph. At the end one of the officers told her to put her left foot on the brake and pull up on the accelerator with her right foot at the same time. She went from over 100 mph to under 50 mph instantly, let go of the pedals.
- Ames, IA, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
My husband was on private property. He got in the car, put the car in reverse and backed up. He heard a loud pop. He put the car in drive, and his foot was still on the brake. The car began to accelerate on its own with his foot on the brake until the vehicle got up to 60 miles per hour. Trying not to hit the house, or the person outside of the property he maneuvered the car into the back yard. The car was steadily picking up speed and his foot was on the brake the entire time. He could not get the gear to shift or the brakes to work. The vehicle struck a tree and that impeded the movement of the vehicle. He turned the car off and got out of it.
The date above is the first date there was a indication of a problem. The actual speed of travel has varied. The issue is random and has affected most systems at one time or the other. It has normally been a headache more than safety always going away after shutting the car down and restarting. To me it became a safety issue when about two months ago I heard a loud bang like I hit something and then my rpms increased and the transmission would not shift out of the lower gears. I pulled into a safe parking area, shut the car down and called the dealer. After restarting the car the problem went away, just as it has every time no matter what system has been affected. The issues have ranged from a cruise control refusing to activate, the cruise control having erratic behavior (often kicking in the passing gear when not required), total electronic panel shutdown (including radio), to doors locking on their own when open, to headlights not being turned off when they should have been after 2-30 seconds. The transmission issue has been the most serious. The car should have already been serviced under a similar recall. I have noted similar complaints including a similar transmission compliant on Kia forums. Kia itself refused to give the go ahead for a computer reset/upgrade. My dealer did this on his own for me after I made it clear this has gone too far. A personal conversation with Kia was negative and was nothing short of talking in circles. I understand the issue of trying to traced random problems, but not the failure to start an investigation into, for instance, possible computer shielding issues making outside interference a possibility. It remains to be seen if the computer update works, but it is a issue when a transmission shuts totally or partly down. The dealer has never been able to verify my complaints.
My wife was driving my our 2011 Kia Sorento at around 55 mph entering the highway when she suddenly lost power. She tried to use both the brakes and accelerator and found that neither of them worked. The car slowed to about 5-10mph before eventually stopping in the middle of the road, as she had been unable to pull the car to the side of the road. After several minutes of trying, she was eventually able to get the car restarted and drive the rest of the way home. She does recall that the driver side window appeared to be working. The car was brought to the dealership immediately the day after this happened. However, they were unable to reproduce what happened to the car. They did update the electronic control module software. Will continue to monitor situation closely.
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the vehicle hesitated while attempting to accelerate. The contact mentioned that once the vehicle responded, the vehicle lunged forward abnormally. The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times. The dealer was unable to duplicate the failure, but replaced the accelerator pedal assembly as a temporary remedy. The remedy failed to repair the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure who lodged a complaint and advised the contact that they would contact him at a later date. The vehicle was not further repaired. The failure mileage was 3,000 and the current mileage was 15,000. The consumer has since traded the vehicle. Updated 02/01/12
While driving the vehicle and while pressing the gas pedal the vehicle starts to come to a stop as if the gas pedal is not being applied. I have to release the gas pedal and press it again for the Sorento to respond and continue to accelerate. I took it to the dealer and they have no clue as to what is the problem. They reset the computer and released the vehicle to me but the problem persists.
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the vehicle stalled while driving 5 mph. The vehicle was jump started the following day and taken to an authorized dealer. The throttle was replaced. The failure had since recurred on an intermittent basis while driving at various speeds. The contact also stated that the alarm system would inadvertently sound. In addition, the contact stated that the vehicle would experience difficulty starting. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer and they were unable to diagnose a failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 8,990.
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact was driving approximately 5 mph in reverse and the vehicle unexpectedly increased acceleration and circled around the sidewalk and then uncontrollably traveled onto the lawn, crashing through a plastic fence. There was no personal injury. A police report was not filed, but they were notified. The contact planned to have the vehicle towed to the dealer for diagnosis. The manufacturer was notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 7,410. Updated 12/28/11 the consumer stated there was damage to the rear passenger side of the vehicle. The consumer has since sold the vehicle. Updated 03/12/12
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that while driving at low speeds, the ESC and dbc lights illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact applied the brakes and the vehicle surged forward until crashing into a tree. A police report was not filed and no injuries were suffered. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was pending an investigation. The manufacturer was notified and the contact was informed that an engineer would be sent to examine the vehicle. The failure and current mileages were unknown.
Driving from palm springs to los angeles on highway 10, a very loud clunk heard beneath the drivers seat and vehicle lost power but continued to rev. Slowly recovered. About 10 minutes later, at speed of 65 in traffic on highway, another loud grinding clunk heard somewhere beneath driver's seat. Vehicle again lost power but continued to rev. Best way to describe is that it felt like the car was suddenly dropping from 5th gear to 1st gear. But the gear shift was not touched. This happened in traffic on a major highway. I see there are dozens of similar complaints registered on this site. Please take action before someone is hurt.
Cruise control broken for 3rd time. Cruise control does not work, has already had cruise control switch replaced once. Taking into dealer for third time and ironically, the day we picked 2011 Kia Sorento up to have the cruise control fixed for the second time, it did not work with dealer stating "could not duplicate customer's concern." What if we all did our job that way" is this site, paid for by us citizens, just for blogging or does the national highway traffic and safety administration have any teeth" its about time for a recall on the 2011 Kia Sorento for transmission, sudden acceleration, cruise control, steering - pulling to the right, and other problems the 2011 Kia Sorento has that are dangers to the public at large.
I was traveling at approximately 70 mph and my tachometer stopped working and I started losing speed. The car would not shift. I was able to move to manual shifting and resume my speed. But the tachometer continued to read "0".
Vehicle pulls to the right and has since day one. Dealer states "we cant duplicate your concern", yet when we picked up the vehicle (from the cruise control breaking, the vehicle again pulled to the right. We did not say much after until reading about dozens of other vehicle owner whom experience the same problem. When will the national highway transportation and safety administration do something about it?
After completeing the second NHTSA complaint #10377110 last evening on our 2011 Kia Sorento, my spouse came home from driving the 2011 Kia Sorento (with two previous transmission complaints) and informed myself the vehicle now accelerates on its own!!! my spouse stated "the engine started reving all by itself" so I hit the brakes. She stated the vehicle's brakes did in fact stop the vehicle and she was able to drive home safely with no further incidence. Please do something about the Kia Sorento before someone is hurt. We will no longer drive the vehicle for any reason.
The contact owns a 2011 Kia sorrento. The contact stated that the vehicle would sporadically lunge forward when started. The contact stated that the vehicle has a keyless start and the failure would occur even while sitting with the brakes depressed. The failure progressed and became more frequent over time. The vehicle was in the process of being inspected for the failure. The failure mileage was 14 and the current mileage was 2,100.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Greenlawn, NY, USA